People are Reading My Blog…Now What?

Here’s a question…if you’d just written your most successful blog post ever, what would YOU do next? (Keep in mind that you just cancelled your cable to save $50 a month, so going to Disney World isn’t really an option.)

Since last week’s post about quitting my job went viral (because 300 unique hits IS viral in the world of the Fiesta), I’ve tossed, turned, written posts, deleted posts, and advanced 30 levels in Candy Crush Saga. I even had a weird dream about interviewing for a job in a running store with a 90-year-old man who carried a pocket watch and a cane and wasn’t buying my “managing technical writers totally relates to selling running shoes because…” spiel. (In the end, he offered me an internship starting in February, and I returned to the parking lot to find my car completely submerged in water.)

My waking thoughts haven’t been much more logical:

Whoa, is the whole world miserable?

Maybe people just like sub-headings THAT much??

And lists, I should use more lists.

And how-tos…

Well, I’m never getting that job back.

Ooh, I should thank everyone for the support!

How the heck am I going to get this back to being a running blog?

Maybe I’ll become the preeminent blogger on running and wellness! I’ll be the next Oprah!

Nah, I’m probably more of an Ellen. Cause she’s awkward and I’m awkward, so we’re soul-mates.

Umm, sorry dear, you are no Ellen.

Doh.

In any event, I am extremely grateful to everyone who read and shared last week’s post, and have been truly touched by how many of you reached out to me via comments, Facebook, Twitter, email, text, phone, etc. While I do always aim to put something positive out in the world — or at least to make people laugh — it’s incredibly humbling to have anyone call your work “brave” or, even better, “inspirational”.

So, now what?

I am actually glad I procrastinated this post, and not just because I’m at level 180 on Candy Crush. (But that’s pretty freaking amazing, don’t you think??? Or sad. Maybe it’s sad…)

All that time led me to the realization that there was one term I kept hearing over and over again that was really bothering me: Brave.

Don’t get me wrong, I love a compliment! But…I don’t actually think writing that post was really all that brave. Nor was quitting my job with plenty of financial and emotional support. Or even admitting that it took a mini-breakdown for me to do all that.

It was honest.

Not to be melodramatic, but I find it somewhat tragic that we seem to find a simple act of honesty worthy of commendation. Is it really so completely crazy to try to just…be yourself?

The feedback I’ve gotten so far is this: Yes, being honest is unusual. But people love it!

I feel like an unbelievable number of good things have been coming my way since writing that post! Not the least of which was the discovery that being honest with people doesn’t make them run away from you like some creepy leprous monster. Because yes, I did worry that might happen.

So there’s some more honesty for you. It wasn’t totally “easy” to write all that. And yes, I edited and reworked things until I felt comfortable saying them aloud. (And since I’m still a little nervous, let me get on record as saying I don’t think you should all go quit your jobs and set a desk on fire on the way out.)

(No, I didn’t set a desk on fire.)

What I’m really saying, in a very inefficient manner, was that it wasn’t easy, but it felt right at the time. And that made it a lot less hard.

So, since so many people seemed to identify with so much of what I had to say, I thought I’d spend my next few posts sharing resources that helped it feel right. Basically, I’ll share any random thing that has stuck with me over the years. (I was going to list them all in this post, but it was starting to compete with a George R. R. Martin book, length-wise.)

My intention is not to go into my greatest exercise in self-absorption yet, but rather to point you to far wiser and more eloquent people who can elaborate on the crazy variety of things I tried to pack into one little blog post. Most of them even do it with a lot less swear words, so that’s nice. If you like to be proper and all that.

Believe me, these lists are extremely well-researched. Not in the “annotated in AP style” sort of way, but in the “I spent 30 years attending/watching/reading every class/movie/book/magazine/whatever that promised self-improvement or enlightenment. I have personality-tested myself into the ground, tried out multiple forms of “therapy”, and turned over about 85 “new leaves”.

It sounds like a lot of you have similar compulsions, so I hope this will save you some time and the planet some trees.

Not everything that I’ve found meaningful is “cool”, and very little of it is revolutionary. (Why yes, I do clean my house more effectively when listening to upbeat teen pop. Don’t you?)

And since we are all coming from different places with different interests, I can’t promise you’ll find them helpful…or even interesting. But, I hope we will all get to find some entertainment in the exercise. Just think, I’ll get to talk about myself some more, and you’ll get the voyeuristic pleasure of rifling through my stuff! Win-win, is it not?

Random but semi-relevant funny story: I once threw a work party with my iTunes on shuffle. It ended up with lots of me running frantically to the computer to skip Mickey Avalon songs.

Based on that experience, I’m not going to actually put ALL my stuff on display. My willingness to be honest ends where common sense begins. (Okay, maybe a little beyond that point.)

Right now, I’m thinking the following categories should be relatively helpful/safe:

Running and Physical Wellbeing

Career

Mental and Emotional Wellbeing

Life in General

But of course, this is me, so Lord knows what I’ll end up typing. At the very least, I’ll try to give each post a relevant title, so you can skip it entirely if the topic just isn’t your thing.

Oh, and if there are specific areas you’re wondering about, I’m definitely open to requests!